Alien cannibal crayfish are eating their way through the indigenous wildlife in waterways around Guisborough.

Signal crayfish, the larger American cousins of Britain’s endangered white claw crayfish, have colonised the becks around Guisborough and one man has called for something to be done.

David Grey, the owner of Tockets Bridge Farm, says the pondlife in the waterways in East Cleveland - Saltburn, Skelton Ellers, Tocketts, and Guisborough Becks, have Crayfish in them as big as his fist eating all the pond life.

He said: “I’ve watched it since I saw my first one in the beck over the last 15 years or so.

“It was a thriving natural beck full of indigenous species of snail, eel and trout.

“I’m working with the Environment Agency and the water is as clean now as it’s ever been but much of the wildlife hasn’t been able to survive because of these things.”

North American signal crayfish (Image: PA)

A voracious predator, the Signal crayfish it will eat almost anything it finds including plants, invertebrates, snails, small fish and fish eggs. It is also a cannibal that makes a meal of its own young.